RUSSIA: The Bear Growls Via @Strategypage

June 19, 2012: Despite continued violence in Syria, Russia refuses to join the rest of the world in condemning the Syrian dictatorship. While agreeing that the Syrian government is killing a lot of civilians, all Russia will call for are negotiations between the Syrian government and rebels. Russia is part of an international alliance (including China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba) that oppose international efforts to overthrow despotic and oppressive governments. Russia refuses to budge on this point because Russia has been turning into a despotic government over the last decade. Russia does not have an absolute dictator but an elected government that uses a high degree of state control of media and the electron process to manipulate election results to keep an authoritarian leader (popular with many Russians) in power. The Russian leader of this process, newly ...